The United Performing Arts Fund announced its allocations Friday to support local performing arts groups, including $7,455,847 to its member organizations and $148,153 in small grants to nonmember groups.

Most of the changes in allocations this year over last year are relatively incremental, though there are a few exceptions. | Oct. 5, 2012»Read Full Blog Post(2)

After a two-week hiatus due to Superstorm Sandy, the Concert Corner with CineStars' Brittany Umar is up and running again. (CineStars is based in New Jersey, and was without power for over a week because of the storm.)

The Chipstone Foundation, known for unconventional exhibitions of historic objects, has hired a new curator.

Sarah Anne Carter, a lecturer on history and literature at Harvard University, was selected because of her innovative teaching practice and for the cutting-edge technology that she brings to the study of objects, Chipstone officials say. | Nov. 12, 2012»Read Full Blog Post(1)

"Battle Hymn," a work by Wisconsin playwright Ludmilla Bollow, will be one of 10 plays performed at the Republican Theater Festival held in Philadelphia from Monday to Wednesday.

The play, which Bollow says was "based on an incident in Marshfield in 2000," follows what happened when a group sought to remove a statue of Jesus from a public parkway. The play has a fictional ending, says Bollow. | Nov. 12, 2012»Read Full Article

The Pabst Theater group kicked off the week with four new show announcements for 2013 spanning from Billboard-topping alt rockers to fuzzy kid show stars.

Rob Thomas’ alternative rock group Matchbox Twenty, whose first album in 10 years, “North,” debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 in September, is coming to the Riverside Theater, 116 W. Wisconsin Ave., Feb. 9. Tickets are $39.50 to $75. | Nov. 12, 2012»Read Full Article

Brick-and-mortar bookstores and the physical, printed books they sell may be (choose your verb -- challenged, endangered, threatened) by online vendors and ebooks. But if they are going down, they are not going down unloved and uncelebrated.

A spate of new books celebrate bookstores and books themselves. Two of them will be featured in a “Celebrate Indie Bookstores” love-in at 7 p.m. Nov. 15 at Boswell Book Company, 2559 N. Downer Ave. Both feature Milwaukee writers who will take part in the evening. | Nov. 12, 2012»Read Full Blog Post(2)

"The Big Lebowski’s" Walter Sobchak is back doing what he does best – bowling. Well, kind of.

John Goodman, the actor who brought the unhinged bowling nut to life in the Coen Brothers cult comedy classic, makes a cameo in the latest Funny or Die bowling trick shots video from Milwaukee filmmaking brothers Nick and Jack Packard. | Nov. 12, 2012»Read Full Article

Summerfest officials have announced the first headliner for its 46th year. Country star Jason Aldean, whose first headlining amphitheater tour in 2011 included a stop at the Marcus Amphitheater, is returning to the Big Gig on June 29, a festival spokeswoman has confirmed.

The announcement comes as a bit of a surprise, because it was announced Oct. 18 that Aldean would headline Wrigley Field in Chicago on July 20. Several acts in recent years that headlined the approximately 41,000-capacity ballpark, including Bruce Springsteen, Roger Waters, Paul McCartney and the Police, opted to skip Milwaukee on those tours. | Nov. 12, 2012»Read Full Article(9)